State v. Goyette

• Decision Date: 31 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2004AP2211-CR.,2004AP2211-CR.
• Citation: 2006 WI App 178,722 N.W.2d 731
• Parties: STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Timothy J. GOYETTE, Defendant-Appellant.<SMALL><SUP>†</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Page 731

722 N.W.2d 731

2006 WI App 178

STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Timothy J. GOYETTE, Defendant-Appellant.^†

No. 2004AP2211-CR.

Court of Appeals of Wisconsin.

Submitted on Briefs August 10, 2005.

Opinion Filed August 31, 2006.

On behalf of the defendant-appellant, the cause was submitted on the briefs of Edward John Hunt of Hunt & Quinn S.C., Milwaukee.

On behalf of the plaintiff-respondent, the cause was submitted on the brief of Jeffrey J. Kassel, Assistant Attorney General, and Peggy A. Lautenschlager, Attorney General.

Before LUNDSTEN, P.J., DYKMAN and VERGERONT, JJ.

¶ 1 LUNDSTEN, P.J

This is a plea withdrawal case involving a "package plea agreement." As used in this opinion, package plea agreement refers to a plea agreement that is contingent on two or more codefendants all entering pleas according to the terms of the agreement. If one defendant does not enter a plea according to the agreement, the State is not bound by the agreement with respect to any of the defendants. Goyette entered pleas under a package plea agreement, was sentenced, and then moved for plea withdrawal. The circuit court denied the motion.

¶ 2 This appeal raises two issues. First, Goyette argues that the circuit court failed to comply with WIS. STAT. § 971.08(1) (2003-04)¹ during his plea hearing because the court failed to sufficiently inquire into the voluntariness of his plea in light of the package nature of the plea agreement. Thus, Goyette makes what is commonly referred to as a Bangert argument.² Goyette contends the circuit court erred when it concluded there was no Bangert violation. We do not, however, resolve Goyette's Bangert argument because it is moot. Under the particular facts in this case, regardless of the circuit court's Bangert ruling, Goyette obtained what he would have been entitled to had the court agreed with his Bangert argument.

¶ 3 Second, Goyette argues that the circuit court erred when it concluded that his pleas were not coerced, but instead voluntary. Most prominently, Goyette asserts the court wrongly concluded that, even if Goyette felt pressure in the sense that he "felt a psychological need to try to help [his] co-defendants" get the benefit of the package agreement, such pressure is not the type that renders a plea involuntary. We reject Goyette's argument on this issue and, for additional reasons, affirm the circuit court's conclusion that Goyette's pleas were voluntary.

Background

¶ 4 On July 9, 2001, a young man named Jeffrey Smulick was beaten to death and his body was put in the Mississippi River. A few days later, a criminal complaint was issued charging Timothy Goyette and three other men with first-degree intentional homicide, as party to a crime. The complaint alleged that Goyette, Gary Gregory, Jonathan Coryell, and Colin Littlejohn all participated in severely beating Smulick, including punches and kicks to Smulick's head. Initially, the four men beat and left Smulick incapacitated near the river. Later, Coryell and Littlejohn returned to Smulick, who was still on the ground incapacitated, and one of these men struck Smulick's head with a rock. Littlejohn dragged Smulick's body into the river.

¶ 5 The complaint further alleged that Goyette, Gregory, and Coryell were members of a "gang" called the Northside Bloods and that the beating was part of an "initiation" so that Littlejohn could be admitted into the gang. All four men gave statements to police admitting they participated in the initial beating. The primary conflict in the statements had to do with whose idea it was to go back to Smulick after the initial beating and whether Coryell or Littlejohn struck Smulick with the rock. The investigation produced medical evidence supporting the view that Smulick would have died from injuries inflicted during the initial beating in which Goyette admitted participating.

¶ 6 Plea negotiations commenced sometime prior to February 7, 2002. The record contains a letter from the prosecutor dated February 7, referring to a prior proposal, and making individual offers to Goyette, Coryell, and Gregory to reduce their charges from first-degree intentional homicide to first-degree reckless homicide.³ A second written offer was made about a month later in a letter dated March 8, 2002. In this letter, the prosecutor offered to reduce the homicide charge to second-degree reckless homicide with a weapons enhancer, and added a charge of aggravated battery with a gang enhancer. This proposal was a "package" proposal. It was contingent on all three defendants pleading guilty according to the terms of the offer. Goyette's trial counsel testified that he kept Goyette apprised "every step along the way" and had "intelligent conversations about the facts of the case and how we wanted to attempt to resolve it."

¶ 7 About ten days later, on March 19, the defendants and their attorneys held a joint meeting. At this meeting, Goyette and Coryell said they would accept the March 8 offer. Gregory, however, was not willing to agree because he contended no weapon was involved in the initial beating and he would not agree to the weapons penalty enhancer. The attorneys negotiated further, and the prosecutor offered to drop the weapons enhancer, thus further reducing the total exposure of each man by five years. In a second joint meeting the same day, the attorneys all recommended that the men accept the agreement, and all three indicated acceptance. The portion of the agreement making it a package plea agreement provides:

Each defendant understands that this plea agreement is contingent on each defendant pleading guilty pursuant to its terms. If any of the aforementioned defendants does not plead guilty, this agreement is null and void with respect to the remaining defendants.

¶ 8 A joint plea hearing with all three defendants was held the next day, March 20. At the hearing, the circuit court was fully apprised of the package nature of the plea agreement. During the plea colloquy, the court individually questioned the defendants regarding coercion. The court's exchange with Goyette on this topic was as follows:

THE COURT: Mr. Goyette, has anybody made any promises to you to get you to accept this plea agreement other than what's contained in the plea agreement itself?

GOYETTE: No, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Has anybody threatened you with anything in order to get you to enter into this plea agreement?

GOYETTE: No, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Has anybody pressured you, coerced you or forced you in any way to do this?

GOYETTE: No, Your Honor.

Thus, the court asked Goyette whether he had been pressured or coerced, but did not ask more specifically whether he had been pressured or coerced because of the package nature of the agreement.

¶ 9 The court accepted the pleas of all three men and scheduled separate sentencing hearings. On July 17, 2002, Goyette was sentenced to twenty-five years of initial confinement and ten years of extended supervision, the maximum available. The court took into account Goyette's young age and dysfunctional family, but also his dreadful juvenile record,⁴ his pride in gang membership, and the senseless brutality of the homicide. Further, the court considered Goyette's repeated failure to reform his behavior despite participation in multiple treatment programs and various levels of supervision, including intensive tracking and placement at the Lincoln Hills detention facility. Indeed, as the court noted, Goyette was on electronic monitoring while he was beating Smulick.

¶ 10 At the time of the killing, Littlejohn was seventeen, Gregory was eighteen, Coryell was eighteen, and Goyette was fifteen. Goyette turned sixteen about ten days after the killing, was sixteen when he entered his guilty pleas, and was sentenced the day before his seventeenth birthday.

¶ 11 The first time Goyette complained that he felt pressure to enter his pleas was after he had been sentenced. Goyette filed a motion seeking plea withdrawal, alleging that the circuit court failed to comply at the plea hearing with its statutory duty to ascertain if Goyette's pleas were "voluntary in light of the `all or nothing package.'" Thus, his motion asserted a Bangert violation. Goyette's motion asserted that, at the time of the pleas, he believed he was innocent of second-degree reckless homicide and that he pled under "pressure, haste and confusion." Goyette asserted that he did not have "sufficient time to confer privately with [his] own counsel" and that he "felt tremendous pressure from [his] attorney . . . to accept the deal." He asserted that he felt coerced "by the fact that if [he] did not enter the plea, [his] codefendants would not be able to reach plea agreements." Goyette asserted that he did not want to speak up in the presence of his codefendants and would not have entered his pleas if he had received a separate plea hearing.

¶ 12 Without ruling on the merits of Goyette's claimed Bangert violation, the circuit court held an evidentiary hearing. The witnesses at this hearing were Goyette, Coryell, Gregory, and the trial attorneys for all three men.

¶ 13 Consistent with his plea withdrawal motion, Goyette's testimony consisted primarily of assertions that he "felt pressured" due to the package nature of the agreement and that he did not feel he had sufficient time to consider the agreement. Goyette testified that the reduced exposure to prison time provided by the plea agreement had no bearing on his decision. He contended the only reason he entered his pleas was attorney pressure and the pressure he felt to go along so that Coryell and Gregory would get the benefit of the plea agreement.

¶ 14 The circuit court denied Goyette's motion in an oral decision. The court concluded there was no Bangert violation, thus rejecting Goyette's assertion that the court's inquiry into the voluntariness of Goyette's pleas, in the package plea context, was insufficient. The court's factual findings,...